The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1887-06-15
A NATIONS PREFERRED CREDITORS.
From Senator woOlsOn's Memorial Day speech

nsOohhiOO1uB AoWh
II requires no word painting to recall
wildly the scenes of 1861 and the years
following. In Mahaska and the other
organized counties of our State, and over
all the Nation, these scenes were repro
duced, as company after company faced
southwark, amid the tears, the prayers and
feryent farewells of loved ones. What
would result in the individual cases of these
brave hearts; who would return and who
would molder beneath Southern sod was
known only to Him who ordereth our ways.
Fellow citizens. You we'll remember the
promises made to the boys as they left
home, family and prospects behind and
went forth at the call of duty. Is it for
gotten how you assured them that, what
ever the issue Of the war, if they fell, their
wives, their children, or their dependent
parents, should be we'll cared for; if they
survived, and the hardships of soldier life
should impair their usefulness, or sickness
or wounds lessen their ability 10 support
themselves, grateful nation would gladly
make full provision for their comfortable
maintenance. These promises were made
in all sincerity. You meant what you said.
In some directions these promises
have been fulilled. But not to the
full letter or spirit The pension list
of the Government is large, its amount
reaching into the millions. But so was
the army upon which it is based. A million
of armed men facing another armed million,
furnish basis for pensions computation
such as the world never gave before. While
the Government has been widening and
broadening its pension lists it has not yet
reached the point where the boundary line
should be finally placed. The advance is
slowly made. Justice in this respect is
tardy. No other otfense on the part of the
Government is so rank-for no other dere-
LECTION of duty should the citizen so hang his
head in grief, as to-day there live-are
forced to live, under the shelter of the
poor houses of the country, surrounded
with paupers and tramps-men who wore
the blue n the war for the suppression OF
the rebellion. | denounce il as a burning
shame, that this Republic is compelling
thousands OF its brave defenders, in their
old age and infirmities, to seek the friendly
roof of the public aims house.
grant that the Government does much
in the way of Soldiers Homes. But what
possible excuse can satisfy the honest con-
science or the country for the compulsory
association of the worn out, decrepit
soldiers with the average public pauper |?
IL the finances of the country were i'm
poverished there might possibly be less
ground for positive complaint. But the
Treasury vaults are fairly grooming under
the burden of the millions they contain.
Hundreds upon hundreds of millions lie
idle within the Treasury walls. And yet
the wisdom of our Government finds its
development in condemning to poor-h house
charities not only the soldiers already
there, but the long list of others on the
way, who, because of loss of evidence
connecting present disability with service,
or because the disability has appeared
since discharge, are unable to bring their
cases within the general pension laws.
These preferred creditors OF the Govern
ment deserve speedy justice. The APP
| preaching Congress must enact some suffi-
! cient pension law-sutficient to take from
/ these poor houses our disabled comrades
and enable them to pass in respectable
surroundings their declining days. Unless
! il shall enact such law, and if necessary
maintain it by the requisite two thirds
vote, il will not meet the just expectations
OF the people. The country cannot afford
to le otherwise. Other wars may come.
Calls for volunteers may again become
necessary. The nation cannot afford in
advance 10 notify those whom il asks to
volunteer in defense of the flag, that it
will not protect and care for them and
theirs TO the best of its ability. From q
merely mercenary standpoint, measured by
the low standard of dollars and cents, this
pension is far cheaper than maintaining,
as in the Old World, large standing
army. To make its volunteer force-its
reserve corps Of citizen soldiery-most
effective, the nation must prove it graft
tude, its willingness to stand by its volun-
teers, not only while in the ranks, but
when disabled and inirm after service is
completed.
Comrades, isn't the demand we make
reasonable? Are we not justified in de-
claring that we and the country at large de-
mand that a pension law be promptly
passed, with promises so compulsive that
no soldier who imperiled his life for the
Union in the hardships and struggles of
those years shall, on next Memorial Day,
be compelled, unless as result of his
own vicious habits, to place himself under
pauper associations and poor-house pro-
lection.